Popularity with online holiday shopping has increased over the past several years and the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to cause an even larger increase this year. 

"As more and more people shop online, law enforcement wants to provide reminders to help residents keep their packages and financial accounts secured," stated Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves.

If having a package delivered, consider having it shipped to your work, asking a neighbor to pick it up until you arrive home or request the deliver driver to place it out of sight, such as behind a pillar or bush.

"In addition to making sure your package doesn't get stolen from your front porch, we also want to help make sure your bank and credit card accounts don't become compromised," continued Sheriff Groves.  Some basic steps to help limit the potential for identity theft, include:

• Monitor your credit card accounts closely. Question and check into any unfamiliar or unauthorized transactions. You can also use a notification feature with many delivery services, such as Amazon, which will send you a text notification any time a purchase is made to your account.
• Be aware of fraudulent websites that may look like a familiar store. The legitimate URL should start with HTTPS and should also have a lock symbol next to the address.
• Use a secure network to conduct transactions, not a public WiFi network
• When creating usernames and passwords, make sure they are unique. Resist the convenience of using the same user ID's and passwords for multiple accounts.
• If given the option, take the extra time to enable the two-step authentication feature, which will send a code to your cell phone to insure you are the same person attempting to make an online purchase.

"As a final reminder, I want to again urge residents to never give out their personal bank account information, their social security number, confirm their address or any other personal information to someone calling you, even if they claim to be with your bank, a government agency or a business you are familiar with.  If you have concerns about your information being breached, you should hang up and call the official number for the institution, not the one provided by whoever called you," concluded Sheriff Groves.

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